Technicians stall Ekta Kapoor’s shoot

Dec 25, 2012, 10.09AM ISTMumbai Mirror[ Soumyadipta Banerjee ]

Ekta Kapoor

There was high drama on the sets of Ekta Kapoor's Ek Thi Daayan at Film City, Goregaon last Saturday as an arm of the Technical Workers' Association stormed inside,alleging its members are being 'overworked'.

The protesters stalled the shooting and managed to wrest an assurance out of the producers that technicians will not be made to work for even a minute more than the mandatory 12-hour shift.

Turns out, the incident is only the first casualty of the latest decision taken by the Technical Workers Association - to halt any film or television shoot, where technicians are made to work for more than 12 hours at a stretch. Acting on member complaints that have been pouring in for the past month, the body has threatened to launch surprise raids on film and television sets to stop its members from being overworked.

Dharmesh Tiwari, President of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) confirmed the development and said, "We will be raiding the sets where our members are being made to work for more than 12 hours. Every shift is supposed to be of eight-and-a-half hours duration and can be extended up to 12 hours. But under no circumstances can the shift be extended beyond that."

Apparently, the association has received scores of complaints from its members that their shifts are being stretched beyond the stipulated 12 hours. "There have been instances where our members have fallen sick due to exhaustion because they were overworked. While artistes get to sleep in between in their vanity vans, some producers don't spare a thought for the light man or spotboy, who is made to stand for 12 hours at a stretch.Wehavehadenoughofthese complaints. We will start acting on them now," Tiwari said, adding, "TV shoots regularly flout norms. Even film shoots do so. We are viewing this issue very seriously now."

Coming back to the Saturday incident, Balaji CEO Tanuj Garg confirmed the news and said, "Some union members barged onto the sets of Ek Thi Daayan on Saturday and claimed we had extended the 12-hourshift. We were working on an intense scene and hence, our team didn't realise we had extended the time limit. After they came in, we decided to pack up for the day."

Garg said the protest petered down after his team gave the agitating workers an assurance that they would henceforth stick to the stipulated 12 hour shift. "It was an oversight. We told them their concern was genuine and we should have kept a track on the time. However, we assured them we would not violate the 12-hour shift timing now on," he pointed out.